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Wait, We’re Exaggerating Our Happiness About Kids?

A pair of researchers from the University of Waterloo in Ontario published a study in the journal Psychological Science asserting that parents exaggerate how happy they are that they had children, reported LiveScience. “. . . [T]he idea that parenthood involves substantial emotional rewards appears to be something of a myth,” LiveScience said, in light of how much money and work parenthood entails.

Now that children no longer work the farms or monetarily contribute to the family as they did generations ago, “the economic value of having children has been dropped fast,” the site reported.

Time Magazine writer John Cloud concurred with the study’s assessment, saying, “Does this mean that you shouldn’t have kids? Yes – but you won’t. Our national fantasy about the joys of parenting permeates the culture. Never mind that it wasn’t always like this.” (March 2011)